<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>

	<title>Brittany Ann Kos</title>
	
	<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8">
	<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width; initial-scale=1.0">
    <link rel="icon" type="image/x-icon" href="images/favicon.ico">

	<link href="css/1140.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" media="all">
	<link href="css/main.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" media="all">
	
	<link href='http://fonts.googleapis.com/css?family=Dosis:400,300' rel='stylesheet' type='text/css'>
	
</head>
<body>

	<div id="page">

		<header>
		
			<div id="topHeadBar"></div>
			
			<div id="midHeadBar">
				<div class="container16">
				
					<div class="row noMargin">
						<div id="title" class="column10 noMargin">
							<h1>Brittany Ann Kos</h1>
						</div>
						
						<div id="nav_expand" class="phone"><img src="images/plus.png" alt="plus" /></div>
						<div id="navigation" class="column6">
							<a href="publications.html" 	class="nav_link active">Publications</a>
							<a href="teaching.html" 		class="nav_link">Teaching</a>
							<a href="cv.html" 				class="nav_link">CV</a>
							<a href="projects.html" 		class="hide">Projects</a>
							<a href="index.html" 			class="nav_link">Home</a>
						</div>
					</div>
					
				</div>
			</div>
			
		</header>
		
		<section id="content">
			<div class="container16">
				
				<h2 class="pub_year">2015</h2>
				
				<div>
				
					<div class="pub">
						<h3>Infographics: The New 5-Paragraph Essay</h3>
						<p><b>Forthcoming</b></p>
						<p class="reference">
							Kos, B. A., Sims, E. (2015). <i>STEM Careers Infographic Project (SCIP): Teaching Media-Based Computational Thinking Practices</i>. 
							In <i>Proceedings of the 45th SIGCSE technical symposium on Computer science education, March 2014</i>, Kansas City, MO, USA. ACM.
						</p>
						<p class="abstract_title">Abstract</p>
						<p class="abstract">
							The STEM Career Infographic Project (SCIP) was a 4-week exploratory project deployed in an 8th grade classroom at Mountain Vista 
							Middle School (MVMS).  SCIP was poised to address the growing focus on STEM fields at MVMS and within the school district.  We 
							piloted SCIP in Spring 2014 with six science classes or about 180 students.  SCIP allowed for students to explore their own STEM 
							interests, while simultaneously engaging in the 6 Computational Thinking Practices (CTP) outlined by the College Board.
						</p>
						<p class="abstract">
							Students were required to research a STEM career in-depth, then report on their careers using infographics (CTP #2: Creating 
							Computational Artifacts and CTP #3: Abstracting).  We used free and online programs to create the infographics; this provided the 
							students the opportunity to learn software they were not previously exposed to and to explore new communication tools (CTP #1: 
							Connecting Computing and CTP #2: Analyzing Problems and Artifacts).  SCIP also provided many occasions for the students to work 
							together by sharing career information or helping each other with the software (CTP #6: Collaborating).  At the end of the project 
							the students presented their infographics in front of the class and taught their classmates about their career (CTP #5: Communicating).
						</p>
						<p class="abstract">
							The project was incredibly successful.  The students had a positive affect through the duration of the project and many also expressed 
							an extreme level of interest in doing similar projects in the future.  We will be repeating this project in Spring 2015, with a few 
							adaptations and formal evaluation scheme.
						</p>
					</div>
					
				</div>
				
				
				<h2 class="pub_year">2014</h2>
				
				<div>
				
					<div class="pub">
						<h3>Infographics: The New 5-Paragraph Essay</h3>
						<p class="reference">
							Kos, B. A., Sims, E. (2014). <i>Infographics: The New 5-Paragraph Essay</i>. 
							In <i>2014 Rocky Mountain Celebration of Women in Computing</i>, Laramie, WY.
							
							<br/>
							
							<a href="http://scholar.colorado.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1001&context=atlas_gradpapers" target="_blank">Paper</a>
						</p>
						
						<p>Won: Best Paper</p>
						
						<p class="abstract_title">Abstract</p>
						<p class="abstract">
							The STEM Career Infographic Project (SCIP) was a 5-week exploratory project deployed in an 8th grade classroom at Mountain Vista 
							Middle School (MVMS) in the spring of 2014. Students were required to research a STEM career in-depth, then report on their careers 
							using infographics, in lieu of a standard 5-paragraph essay. SCIP was broken down into 9 days of instruction: introduction, research, 
							three days of design lecture, three work days, and a final presentation day. The students were in the lab working on their infographics 
							every day. We observed that infographics were better suited than traditional essays in areas that involved creativity and visual 
							appeal, limited writing for ESL (English as a Second Language) students, fostering and appealing to student’s interests, and overall 
							student enjoyment. Some of the negative obstacles we encountered revolved around limitations of free and online software, addressing 
							the learning curve of technology, and altering student’s expectations of reporting tools. Overall, we considered SCIP a success because 
							of the positive affect we recognized in the students through the duration of the project.
						</p>
					</div>
					
					
					<div class="pub">
						<h3>STEM Career Infographic Project (SCIP)</h3>
						<p class="reference">
							Kos, B. A. (2014). <i>STEM Career Infographics Project (SCIP)</i>.
							In <i>6th Annual Symposium on STEM Education</i>, Boulder, CO.
							Boulder: CSL.
							
							<br/>
							
							<a href="http://www.colorado.edu/csl/symposium_posters/poster_16A.pdf" target="_blank">Poster</a>
						</p>
						
						<p class="abstract_title">Abstract</p>
						<p class="abstract">
							STEM education has been a primary focus in the St. Vrain Valley School District (SVVSD), in Longmont Colorado; however, it can become 
							a challenge for teachers to explore different STEM career opportunities with their students because of their lack of expertise or the 
							student’s wide range of interests.  As a solution, we created the “the STEM Careers Infograph Project” (SCIP).  This project allowed 
							for students to explore their own STEM interests, while simultaneously learning data visualization, digital literacy, and research skills.  
							We piloted the project in the spring of 2014, with six 8th grade science classes, which estimated about 180 students.  The project was 
							incredibly successful; we received positive reactions from a majority of the students and in most cases, an extreme level of interest in 
							doing similar projects in the future.  We will be repeating this project in the spring of 2015, with a few adaptations and a formal 
							evaluation scheme.
						</p>
					</div>
					
				</div>
				
			</div>
		</section>
		
	</div>
	
	<footer>
	
		<div id="topFootBar"></div>
		<div id="midFootBar"></div>
		<div id="bottomFootBar"></div>
		
	</footer>
	
	<script src="http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.9.1/jquery.min.js" type="text/javascript"></script>
	<script src="js/common.js" type="text/javascript"></script>
	<script src="js/ga.js" type="text/javascript"></script>
	<script src="js/tracking.js" type="text/javascript"></script>

</body>
</html>